


Say Something

by thewhiitelotus



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Sokka & Zuko (Avatar) Friendship, Zutara, some time in season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:46:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25007920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewhiitelotus/pseuds/thewhiitelotus
Summary: Based off of the prompt "you're in love with her" from my massive list of prompts sitting in my google docs. Sokka and Zuko have a conversation, and someone is eavesdropping... takes place some time in season 3 after the Southern Raiders episode.  rated T just to be safe.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 212





	Say Something

“You’re in love with her.”

Zuko almost burns his eyebrows off when he suddenly hears Sokka speak to his right. He’s got that “I know what you’re up to” smirk painted across his face, and his arms are crossed nonchalantly in front of his chest.

“What?” Zuko is sweating as he drops out of his bending stance. Usually he can find a quiet place away from camp to practice his fire bending forms to burn off some steam… but apparently not today.

“You’re in love with her,” Sokka says confidently. “You don’t have to deny it, bro. There’s no use.”

“What are you even talking about?” Zuko feigns ignorance, because he knows  _ exactly _ what Sokka is talking about, and he’d rather not get into it here and now. Preferably, they would never get into it. Zuko is completely fine with keeping his feelings for Katara safely tucked away in that little box in his chest where all his other distracting feelings go, only to be let out and burnt off during his solitary training. Even if that means watching Katara laugh at his lame jokes and look up at him with those wide blue eyes, and having to look away before she sees the blush creeping onto his cheeks.

“Oh, come on, Zuko!” Sokka throws his hands up in the air, obviously seeing right through Zuko’s act. “It’s no secret— I’m surprised you don’t bore holes into her back with the way that you stare at her sometimes. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.” he pauses and gives Zuko a pointed look, putting his hands on his hips. “Not that I’m not a genius, because, you know, I am.” Zuko imagines that if Sokka had longer hair, he’d be flipping it over his shoulder right about now. 

“Sokka, sorry to burst your bubble, but you’re full of shit.” Sokka raises an eyebrow at that. “I don’t love— I’m not— Katara doesn’t—”

“Ah ha!” Sokka shouts triumphantly, pointing his finger in Zuko’s face with wide eyes and a shit-eating grin. “I never said anything about Katara!”

Zuko wishes he could fling himself off of a cliff right about now. He seriously considers shoving Sokka aside and running into the woods, past camp, and not stopping until his lungs burn and his legs give out.

“I—” His throat seems to have closed up on him. He opens his mouth and closes it again a few times, and finally lets out a sigh, his tense body relaxing as he accepts the inevitable.

“I don’t know if I love her, okay?” Zuko takes Sokka’s shoulder and leads him a little further in the opposite direction from camp, his voice quieting. “But I’m not going to tell her; I don’t want to mess things up. You remember how long it took for her to even be civil towards me? If she finds out that I…” he takes a deep breath. “Have feelings for her, she’ll probably skin me alive and use the pelt as a new coat.”

Sokka looks at him like he just grew a second head.

“Really, Zuko? You can’t see it?” Zuko’s face contorts with confusion, and Sokka dramatically rolls his eyes. “She looks at you the same way, man! I’ll be damned if I have to watch you and my baby sister pine over each other any longer. It’s seriously annoying, and she’s burnt lunch three times in the past week because she won’t stop watching you jerk bending half naked.” Sokka gestures to Zuko’s bare chest, and he looks down at himself, wondering if his heart can be seen pounding against his ribs. There was no way Katara could feel that way about him… right? Sokka frees Zuko from his thoughts as he lays a hand on his shoulder. 

“Listen, buddy, I hate the idea of my little sister… being with,” he says those words with a strange inflection, “anyone, but if you feel the same way about her as she does about you— which I know you do— you need to get this show on the road. I want to see her happy as much as you do.”

Zuko slumps forward, his head coming to rest in his hand.

“I don’t know, Sokka...” he scrubs his face with his hand, running it through his hair as he straightens up. “What about Aang?”

“What about him?” Sokka continues seeing Zuko’s raised eyebrow. “Look, Aang is sweet, and he’s the Avatar, and he’s desperately in love with my sister,” 

“Tell me about it,” Zuko mutters, kicking the dirt with his toe.

“But Katara needs someone who sees her as she is, and loves her completely, good and bad. I don’t know what happened when you guys went to look for the guy who killed mom,” Sokka’s voice takes on a more serious tone, something Zuko isn’t familiar with. “But I know Katara gets angry, and I know she wanted revenge. And Aang couldn’t accept that. In the end he was happy because Katara was happy, but I don’t think he really thought about what she needed, and what she could have done if she wanted to.” He gives Zuko a knowing look. “I know how strong she is, and I know what she’s capable of. But Aang doesn’t want to see that part of Katara; the scared, angry, sometimes selfish parts of her don’t exist to him. And you can’t love someone you don’t really see.”

Zuko stands in stunned silence, staring at Sokka; he’s never heard the other boy speak so seriously for so long. Zuko bites his lip and turns his head away from Sokka, and catches movement in the bushes out of the corner of his eye. His eyes narrow and he slips easily back into a bending stance, Sokka immediately catching on and grabbing his space sword.

“Who’s there?” he calls out, not expecting to hear a quiet curse from the brush, and his breath hitches as Katara comes walking out of the bushes, playing with her hair and looking sheepish.

“Ohh,” Sokka says, looking from Zuko’s blanched face to Katara’s blushing one, and starts to take a few steps backward. “I’m just gonna…” He points over his shoulder with his sword, takes another step back, and turns around, running back towards camp and away from the drama.

There’s silence for a long minute, and both Katara and Zuko shuffle around awkwardly. Zuko takes a deep breath, his hand going to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“So...” He can feel the blush rush up his neck all the way to his ears as Katara looks up at him. “How much of that did you hear?”

“A fair amount.” Katara plays with the ends of her hair, and Zuko tries not to think about how nice it looks out of her braid, and how soft it must be. “I wasn’t trying to listen in!” She takes a few steps closer, hands held up in front of her in a placating gesture. “I was looking for you guys, to tell you lunch was ready, and I overheard you talking, and I knew I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but you started talking about me, and…” Zuko drops his head to his chest; she had heard everything. He takes a deep breath, preparing himself for the worst.

“Katara—” he lifts his head, and Katara is much, much closer than she was a moment ago. His tongue gets caught in his mouth and all he can do is stare down into her bright blue eyes, barely a foot away from him.

“Did you mean what you said?” She speaks in a hushed tone, her hands coming up to tug on the ends of her hair. “That you have feelings for me?”

Zuko’s face may as well be on fire for how red he knows it is. His heart is pounding in his chest, and he wonders how on earth Katara can’t hear it, because for him it’s deafening. He swallows, and takes a deep breath to calm himself.

“Yes,” he answers, just as quiet as her, unable to tear his gaze away from hers, “I did.” 

Time slows down as something changes in Katara’s eyes, a smile slowly growing on her face. She reaches up and gently lays her hand on Zuko’s scar, mirroring the way she did in the catacombs of Ba Sing Se, her thumb on his lip and something sparkling in her eyes. She takes another step towards him, her body almost flush against his, and he thinks that if his heart starts beating any faster it might explode right out of his chest. His eyes close and he leans into her touch, a shaky breath escaping through his lips.

“And you weren’t going to tell me?” There’s something in her voice that sends a shiver through him, something warm and soft and intimate that makes him want to kiss her more than he ever has before. He’s afraid that if he opens his eyes, it will all have been a dream, so he keeps them closed as he answers her.

“No.” It’s all he can say, a huff of a laugh slipping through his teeth, and a ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of his lip.

“Zuko...” Katara says his name so clearly, and it pulls him up and away from his fear, allowing him to open his eyes to find her face impossibly close, their noses almost touching. He searches her heavy lidded eyes, dancing between them trying to find what he desperately wants to see, but she doesn’t make him look for very long. She leans in and closes the distance between their lips, and Zuko’s eyes close as he leans into her bliss, his hand coming up to cup her face as his other sits lightly on her hip. The kiss is soft and slow, each of them savoring it like a parched man savors his first drink from an oasis. Katara deepens the kiss, biting Zuko’s bottom lip and drawing a quiet gasp from him before he finds her lips again, pulling her impossibly closer to him and tangling his hand in her long hair. Somewhere in the back of his mind he registers that her hair is exactly as soft as it looks.

Eventually they break apart, breathing heavy, and Zuko rests his forehead against hers, still in shock that this all isn’t just some wonderful dream.

“You know...” Katara starts, pulling away to look up at him. “It really isn’t fair that you’re not wearing a shirt, because everyone is probably waiting for us back at camp and you are very,  _ very _ distracting when you’re not wearing a shirt.” Halfway through her speech she looks down at Zuko’s chest and glides her hand down from his collar to his abs, and he knows that she feels him shiver because her smirk gets just a little bigger when he does.

“Maybe I can distract you a little more some other time,” he says breathlessly, and Karata looks back up at him with such fire in her eyes that he feels his face heating up again.

“Hmm,” she hums against his lips as she kisses him again, this one quicker than before, “I think I’d like that.” she smiles at him again, and he can’t help but smile back. She pulls away from him, running her hand down his arm until it sits in his, and Zuko thinks to himself that nothing has ever felt as right as Katara does; her hand in his, her lips on his own, her laugh in his ears. He feels for the first time in a very, very long time, like he won’t stop smiling for days.

“I’ll talk to Aang,” Katara says as she starts walking back towards camp. “He’s going to have to understand. But maybe we should keep a low profile, just for a little while, until he calms down a bit. I know he’s going to be upset.” She says this last bit with guilt in her voice, and Zuko steps closer to her, placing a quick kiss on the side of her head.

“Whatever you want, Katara. You know him better than I do, and I don’t want him to be hurt either. He’s a good kid.” He squeezes her hand before letting go, and she turns to him. “But maybe we should walk back to camp separately, so it doesn’t look as…” he trails off, unsure how to finish.

“Yeah,” Katara agrees with a chuckle. “We probably should. Sokka is going to make it bad enough as it is, no need to give him more ammunition.” 

“Make sure to tell him I said thank you,” Zuko says as Katara starts to walk away.

“Oh no,” she calls over her shoulder. “If you let him know how this worked out, he’ll hold it over your head forever. Don’t let him know you’re thankful.”

She walks off into the trees, and Zuko has to wait a while before he can calm the smile on his face into something less obvious. He wonders if Katara will come see him later tonight so they can pick up where they left off...

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be clear, I love Aang, he's baby, and this in no way is me bashing him. Also, this is the first fic I have ever posted on AO3 so if my tagging is off or anything please let me know :]


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